Quick blog today.
In my series on girl scout law, and what we can learn, this seems to be a simple one: honesty and friendliness.
I, your doctor, will always be honest with you. If you read any of my patient testimonials, you will see a common theme. I love to educate and I will tell you the truth. I don’t candy coat or hide the risks and complications. I show red scars. I show typical results. I show my unaltered results. I am not a used car salesman who is trying to sell you a shiny new car which is really a lemon. There is no benefit in that. If you have a doctor who feeds you rainbows:
- you will likely be disappointed in some way by your surgery because your expectation of your result does not match what you see.
- you may pick the wrong course of action. The best choice for you may have been to do nothing, do a larger surgery, smaller surgery, etc.
- you will have a harder postoperative course with more anxiety because you can’t trust your doctor.
You being honest with me is a no brainer. As I keep saying in my blogs, I am not your mom. I need to know things so I can advise you better on the best course of plastic surgery and what your risks are. If you are a closet smoker, or have a few when you are out with the girls- what is the harm in that?- it WILL affect your healing, for some surgeries a lot more than others. Just like your mom knows when your hand has been in the cookie jar, if I see somthing out of order with your surgery and recovery, I will bust you. So just be honest with me.
As for the friendly part, this one tends to be easy with me. I LOVE my patients. I wish I could have a giant party and get everyone together. I enjoy hearing about their families, jobs, travels, insights. I think the average Palo Alto Bay Area woman is not average. It is an honor to be their doctor.
As for you, if you ever feel not so friendly, please talk to me about it. If I can make things better, I will try. That is what friends do.